World Travel Watch

Larry Habegger

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, May 24, 2009

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Brazil

Some of the worst flooding in decades has swamped the tropical northeast and driven a quarter of a million people from their homes, mostly in Piaui and Maranhao states. Authorities expect it will take a few weeks for the floodwaters to recede because of continuing rains. Large areas of the states remain inundated.

France

Three British women were swarmed by thousands of bees and one was stung 500 times at an art gallery in Moulidars, near the town of Cognac. All three were hospitalized. A British bee expert said such incidents with the European honey bee are very unusual; their hive could have been disturbed, they could have been a swarm looking for a new home that flew in the window and got disoriented or the weather could have affected them. Anyone caught in such a swarm should run and get indoors ahead of the bees as quickly as possible.

On May 15, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted its recommendation to avoid travel to Mexico because of H1N1 flu (swine flu). The CDC downgraded its travel health warning to a travel health precaution because incidence of the disease has decreased in Mexico, cases in the United States were increasingly seen to have no connection to travel to Mexico, and the risk of serious disease from the flu was seen to be less than originally thought. The travel health warning went into effect April 27.

Sri Lanka

After 25 years of brutal conflict and an endgame ignoring international calls for restraint, the conventional war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is over with the army's victory. Whether remnants of the rebel force will stage random attacks in the future remains to be seen, but the government appears ready to address Tamil concerns and forge national reconciliation. If this comes to pass, travel conditions throughout the country should improve, and areas of the north and east that have been risky or off-limits should open up.

Vietnam

More than 13,000 cases of dengue fever and 11 deaths have been recorded this year, an increase of 28 percent over the same period last year. Most of the recent cases were in southern Vietnam, but a risk for the disease exists throughout the country. Dengue now occurs throughout the year, not just in the rainy season. One reason for the increase is the lack of central water systems in the Mekong Delta, where residents store water in tanks that are ideal mosquito breeding grounds. The best way to avoid dengue fever is to avoid mosquito bites.